Privacy statement

Our supporters, King's College Hospital Charity and Trust staff, trustees, volunteers and other individuals we work with are incredibly important to us. Without your help, we simply wouldn’t be able to support the patients and service users of King’s College Hospital Foundation Trust. This notice explains how we collect and use the personal information you provide to us whether online or via phone, mobile, e-mail, letter or other correspondence when you engage with the activities of the Charity.

We promise to respect any personal data you share with us, and keep it safe. We aim to be clear what personal information we collect and not do anything you wouldn’t reasonably expect. We will always respect your rights and choices.  In this Notice we tell you what we will and will not do with your personal data.

This notice includes:

  • Who we are
  • Why we hold and process personal information
  • What personal information we collect
  • How we collect information about you
  • How we will use your personal information
  • The legal basis for processing
  • Who has access to your personal information
  • How we keep your personal information secure
  • How long we will hold your personal information for
  • Your choices
  • Keeping your information up-to-date
  • Your rights in respect of the personal data we hold about you
  • Children and privacy
  • Vulnerable circumstances policy
  • Complaints, compliments or comments
  • Changes to our Privacy Statement

If you have any questions about our Privacy Statement then please contact the Director of Resources who will be happy to talk you through it. Our contact details are:

FAO: Director of Resources
King’s College Hospital Charity
PO Box 78404
London
SW9 1FW
Tel: 020 4526 8050
Email: [email protected]

The Charity’s staff are available to help Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm.

Who we are

King’s College Hospital Charity is dedicated to supporting life-changing care at King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (“the Hospitals”) and where appropriate other NHS organisations.

King’s patients are at the heart of everything we do. We make the best care for patients possible by raising money for cutting edge equipment and facilities, supporting our staff, innovative research and pioneering treatment.  We do this by fundraising and giving grants that enhance services and facilities, support research and development, and improve the working environment for staff of the Trust across its hospitals. We do not raise funds to replace core NHS funding but instead support projects which go above and beyond NHS funded services to deliver the best outcomes for patients.

King’s College Hospital Charity is a registered charity, Charity No. 1165593, and is also a Company limited by guarantee registered in England and Wales, No. 09987908. The Charity’s registered address is Coldharbour Works, 245A Coldharbour Lane, London, SW9 8RR.

Visit the What you make possible section to find out more about the ways the money raised has helped to improve patient care.

Why we hold and process personal information

In carrying out our day to day activities we have relationships with our supporters, our staff, trustees, volunteers, grant applicants, staff of the Hospitals, and patients and visitors to the Hospitals.  As a result we collect, store and process personal information on a day to day basis. Our use of personal information allows us to meet legal requirements, make better decisions, communicate with all of our stakeholders and fundraise more efficiently.

We are therefore required to adhere to the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018, the General Data Protection Regulations and other associated regulations including, but not limited to, the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations.  We take our responsibilities under these regulations very seriously and we work hard to ensure the personal information we obtain is held, used, transferred and otherwise processed in accordance with them.

What personal information we collect

The type of personal information we collect, why we collect if and the legal basis for this data collection may vary depending on our relationship with you and the purpose we are collecting it:

For most purposes we may collect the following:

  • your name; contact details (including postal address, telephone number, e-mail address and possibly your social media identity); date of birth; gender; and
  • information about your activities accessing and using our website(s), about the device you use to access these, your location, but only identified by your IP address and/or MAC address and not your name.

If you are making a donation or registering for an event or we are contacting you in relation to money you wish to give us now or in the future:

  • information about how you wish to hear from us in the future;
  • your bank or credit card details where you provide these to make a payment;
  • information as to whether you are a UK taxpayer to enable us to claim Gift Aid;
  • where relevant information relating to your health (for example if you are taking part in or attending a challenge event) for health and safety purposes;
  • information relating to your reasons for supporting the charity which may refer to additional personal information
  • where you have indicated that you have left us a legacy in your will, any information regarding next of kin with which you may have provided us to administer this;
  • where you are private individual acting as an executor of a will which includes a legacy to our Charity;

If you apply for, or accept a role within the Charity, as an employee, trustee or other volunteer:

  • we will collect the information necessary for us to process these applications, assess your suitability and support or manage this relationship appropriately;
  • we will collect information required to manage our ongoing relationship which for staff will include personal bank account information;
  • age, nationality and ethnicity information where relevant for monitoring purposes.

If you apply for grant funding:

  • we will collect the information necessary to process the application, and pay the grant, which may include personal bank account information and names of individuals participating in the project being funded.

Certain types of personal information are in a special category under data protection laws, as they are considered to be more sensitive.  Examples of this type of sensitive data would be information about health, race, religious beliefs, political views, or sexuality.  We only collect this type of information about our supporters, volunteers or staff where there is a clear reason for us to do so.

When we use special category personal information we will either do so on the basis of your explicit consent or because we need to process it for employment purposes or because it is in your vital interests.

Examples of where we might collect special category data are:

  • If you wish to support our fundraising activities we may ask you about any connection with King’s College Hospital to help us understand more about our supporters.
  • If you choose to tell us, your experiences of the services within the Hospitals.
  • If you are supporting us by participating in publicity for the work of the Charity (eg for a case study about the work of the Hospitals). Where you or a family member or close friend have been a patient in the hospital, we will always ask for your express consent if we propose to use this information, including photographic images, in support of fundraising or reporting our charitable impact.
  • We may request health information if you are taking part in a sporting event to ensure that it is safe for you to take part, or in relation to an event where there may be a need to provide appropriate facilities or support.
  • For employees or volunteers we will collect information regarding your individual medical condition and/or disability so that we can ensure that the role is suitable and that we can adapt our processes or environment to address the condition.

How we collect information about you

Information you provide to us directly

We collect personal information from you when you enquire about our activities, register/sign up for an event, make a donation, enter a raffle or lottery, apply for or accept a job, volunteer, engage with our social media channels, apply for grant funding, respond to a survey we have sent you, or otherwise provide us with your personal information and agree to be contacted.

We may also collect this type of information if you make it public or volunteer it to us when engaging with us.

Information you provide to us indirectly

Your information may be shared with us by third parties, for example independent event organisers, fundraising sites like Just Giving or Virgin Money Giving or other organisations engaged by us to raise funds for the charity. These independent third parties will only do so when you have indicated that you wish to support King’s College Hospital Charity and with your consent. You should check their Privacy Notice when you provide your information to understand fully how they will process your data.

Information provided about you by a friend or relative signing you up for one of our events.

We also use third parties to collect data on our behalf to support our activities. This might include processing your donations, setting up Direct Debits, running raffles, event registrations, and ensuring our records are as up to date as possible through running address and detail verification checks.

Information provided by a colleague in relation  to costs associated with a project that you may be working on that we are funding.

Information from other sources

In addition to the information you give us, we may add information from publicly available sources including data from, for example, reputable newspapers, company websites, Companies House, the Charity Commission, Who’s Who and Debrett’s, LinkedIn/Twitter. We may also use geographic and demographic information based on your postcode. 

We do this in order to manage our fundraising effectively and to give you the best experience by tailoring our approaches to you according to your interests as well as the level at which you could potentially support us. This also enables us to manage our fundraising efficiently and effectively so we can raise more to spend on our beneficiaries.

We also obtain data from public sources to ensure the addresses and postcode information we hold on you is kept up to date.

Website cookies

Cookies are used to gather information on how you use our website.

Cookies are text files, which identify a user’s computer to our server. Cookies in themselves do not identify the individual user, just the computer used. The Support King’s College Hospital website uses persistent cookies – these are used to track returning visitors. They expire after 12 months and enable us to compare website traffic from month to month.

Cookies help us identify which pages are most visited and which events or activities are of most interest. This information can be used to help us improve our website and services and ensure we provide you with the best service. Wherever possible, the information we use for this purpose will be aggregated or anonymised i.e. it will not identify you as an individual visitor to our website.

You can reject cookies. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies – consult the help section of the browser toolbar. Information on controlling cookies or rejecting cookies is available from several web sites, e.g. www.aboutcookies.org

Website analytics

This website uses Google Analytics tracking codes to measure performance enabling us to enhance and improve services for our audiences. However, we do not collect personally-identifiable information (PII) as all data collected is anonymous. For full details on how Google Analytics works, please visit Google Analytics Terms of Service. If you do not want Google Analytics to use your data, then please visit Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

This website also uses Pixel tracking to optimise our advertising, such as the paid advertising campaign with Facebook, Instagram and Mail Online to promote our Great Hospital Hike. The website does not collect or send names, email addresses or contact information. The Pixels track data including standard HTTP header info (such as IP address, location) and buttons clicked on the website. This data is used by us to measure the effectiveness of our advertising, and by the advertising companies (such as Facebook and Mail Online) to serve more relevant ads (known as interest-based advertising). 

Use of email products for bulk mailing

We also use products for sending emails to large numbers of people and can identify from this product whether the email has been opened, and whether links within the email have been clicked.

This enables us to determine whether our emails are of interest to the recipient.

How we will use your personal information

How we may use your information will depend on the reasons why you are providing it and any associated legal/regulatory obligations. This will include the following:

If you are making a donation or registering for an event or we are contacting you in relation to income/future income receipts:

  • To provide you with information about our work including fundraising activities  unless you have indicated that you do not wish to receive this;
  • To ask you to help us raise money, invite you to an event, or donate money to our Charity, but always in accordance with Our Fundraising Promise  (  link to FR Regulator as not on our website? );
  • To process donations you have made or entries into an event, prize draw or raffle;
  • To submit Gift Aid claims to HM Revenue and Customs;
  • For administration purposes e.g. we may contact you about a donation you have made or event you have expressed an interest in or registered for;
  • For internal record keeping, including the management of any feedback or complaints;
  • To conduct due diligence and ethical screening or assessments for fraud prevention;
  • To use anonymised personal data to benchmark our activity with other relevant organisations or report information requested by Regulators;
  • Collecting information which tells us more about the people who support us which enables us to shape the information we are sending to them (see below).
  • To tailor internet and social media advertising according to your interests, preferences and the way you have used our website, Facebook, Instagram or X pages.

If you are using our website

  • To use IP addresses to identify your approximate location, to block disruptive use, to record website traffic or to personalise the way our information is presented to you;
  • To analyse and improve the services offered on our sites to make it as user-friendly as possible.

If you apply for, or accept a role within the Charity, as an employee, trustee or other volunteer

  • To process your application for a job or a volunteer position
  • To support and manage this relationship and pay and/or reimburse you for expenses (as appropriate);
  • To meet our legal obligations; for instance to carry out contractual obligations between you and us, or meet our obligations to regulators, government and/or law enforcement bodies;

If you apply for grant funding

  • To process applications for grants and reimburse individuals for any expenses;
  • To collect information on the impact of our grants and report how our charitable funds have been used in pursuit of our objectives and public benefit.

Collecting information which tells us more about the people who support us 

We collect and analyse information about individuals, or groups of individuals, by combining the data you provide with data we obtain from other sources and carrying out analysis in order to gain a better understanding of our supporters, inform our fundraising strategy and target our communications more effectively and appropriately.

Some examples of such activities and the purpose of these activities are as follows:

Segmentation analysis

This analysis helps us to gain a better understanding of our supporters, their interests, of how they are engaging with us and helping to understand broader demographic and geographic trends.  This also helps us identify communications of potential interest to each supporter and communicate to our supporters cost effectively.

Research
We may also undertake research on an individual supporter’s personal information to help us understand more about the interests of an individual and ensure our communications are tailored appropriately. This may include research on demographic, philanthropic, business and financial information from publicly available sources, including but not limited to Companies House, The Electoral Roll, Charity Commission and from social media sites such as LinkedIn.  We may also estimate their gift capacity, based on their visible assets, history of charitable giving and how connected they are to King’s College Hospital Charity.   

We only use reputable sources, where someone would expect their information may be read by the public. We do not use information sources which have not been broadcast or made public.

Identification of new potential supporters
We would like to identify individuals who may have an affinity to our cause but with whom we are not already in touch. This can be assisted through research aimed at finding individuals who might be interested in our cause and be able to support us at a high level. These might be local business people who have been prominent in our community or people who have made public an interest in our particular area of work. This may include people connected to our current major supporters or trustees. The activity would involve looking at publicly available information (press articles, public profiles on networking sites). This activity might also result in us processing data of individuals who we conclude that we will not contact.

We may also carry out wealth screening using our trusted third-party partners to identify those on our database who may have the capacity to give more. You will always have the right to opt out of this processing.

The above activities help us to understand more about you as an individual so we can focus conversations we have with you about fundraising and volunteering in the most effective way, and ensure that we provide you with an experience as a donor or potential donor which is appropriate for you.

Due Diligence

We will conduct due diligence and ethical screening in line with the charity’s Gift Acceptance Policy to ensure we take appropriate steps to know who our donors are, particularly where meaningful sums are donated and to ensure we meet money laundering regulations.

Your right to object

If you do not wish your data to be used in any of the ways listed above or have questions about this, you can notify us using the following contact details.

Our contact details are:

FAO: Director of Fundraising & Communications
King’s College Hospital Charity
PO Box 78404
London
SW9 1FW
Tel: 020 4526 8050
Email: [email protected]

The legal basis for processing

There must be a legal basis for each use we make of personal information. The relevant legal bases are set out in the data protection regulations.

Specific consent

Consent is where we ask you if we can use your information in a certain way, and you agree to this (for example when we send you marketing material via email or text).  Where we use your information for a purpose based on consent, you have the right to withdraw consent for any future use of your information for this purpose at any time.

Legal obligation

We may have a legal basis to use your personal information where we need to do so to comply with one of our legal/ regulatory obligations.  For example, in some cases we may need to share your information with our various regulators such as the Charity Commission, the Fundraising Regulator, the Information Commissioner or HMRC, or to use information we collect about you for due diligence or ethical screening purposes.

In connection with a contract which you are party to

We have a basis to use your personal information where we are entering into a contract with you or performing our obligations under that contract.  Examples of this would be if you are applying to work/volunteer with us, supporting us through participating in a fundraising event or otherwise being funded by us.

Vital interests

We have a basis to use your personal information where it is necessary for us to protect your life or health.  For example, if there were to be an emergency impacting individuals in our offices or at one of our events, which required us to contact people unexpectedly or share their information with emergency services.

Legitimate interests

We have a basis to use your personal information if it is reasonable for to do so and in our “legitimate interests” (provided that what the information is used for is fair and does not unduly impact your rights).

We consider our legitimate interests to include all of the day-to-day activities carried out by the Charity involving the use or processing of personal information.  Some examples where we are relying on legitimate interests, rather than the bases mentioned above, are:

  • keeping you informed of the Charity’s activities Including ways in which you can support the charity by phone or by post;
  • where you have signed up with us for a third party event (for example a sponsored run not organised by the Charity, sharing personal information with the third party event organiser so they can administer the event);
  • updating your address using third party sources  which includes identifying if you have moved house and you have indicated that your new address can be passed on or if a supporter is deceased;
  • using personal information to administer, and keep records of the people we work with, including volunteers and staff of the Charity and the Hospitals;
  • to analyse and improve our services supporting the Hospitals;
  • using personal information when we are monitoring use of our websites or social media for technical purposes;
  • recording information relating to personal executors with whom we need to communicate regarding bequests to the Charity;
  • analysis and profiling of our supporters.

This list is not exhaustive. We rely on legitimate interests where we consider that our interests in using your information are not over-ridden by any resultant potential negative impact on you and your rights under data protection laws.

When we use special category personal information (please see the “What personal information we collect” section above), we will either do so on the basis of your explicit consent or we need to process it for employment, social security or social protection law purposes or it is in your vital interests.

Who has access to your personal information?

Your personal information is stored on our systems, access to which is limited to staff working in King’s College Hospital Charity, IT staff employed by the Charity’s IT infrastructure provider and some other trusted subcontracted parties.

Until December 2017, the Fundraising and Supporter Development Team of King’s College London fundraised on behalf of King’s College Hospital Charity. As a result of the relationship between the Charity and King’s College London, both organisations were joint data controllers and had access to, and control of, how your personal and financial data was collected, used and stored. These fundraising activities transferred to the Charity in December 2017 and after a short transition period the Charity has become the sole data controller, with some exceptions where supporters also support other organisations or projects that cut across other members of the “King’s Health Partners” group.

We may pass information to staff within the Hospitals if you have given us a donation to benefit the area in which that member of staff works or has responsibility.

We may pass your information to our third party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (for example to process donations and send out mailings or to organise fundraising events).  When we use third party service providers, we only disclose information necessary to deliver that service and there will always be a contract in place to ensure your data remains secure. We will not share or sell your data to third parties to use for their own purposes unless we are required to do so by law, for example, by a court order or for the purposes of prevention of fraud or other crime.

If you are working on a project we are funding, we may also provide your information to your employer to enable us to pay out the grant and monitor progress on the project being funded.

If you are a staff member, we will pass your information to the organization providing the Charity with payroll services in order to ensure you are paid correctly.

Although most of the information we store and process stays within the UK, some information may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). This may occur if, for example, one of our trusted partner’s servers are located in a country outside the EEA. These countries may not have similar data protection laws to the UK/EU however, we will take steps to make sure they provide an equivalent level of protection in accordance with UK data protection law. By submitting your personal information to us you agree to this transfer, storing or processing at a location outside the EEA.

How we keep your personal information secure

We ensure that there are appropriate technical controls in place to protect your personal details; for example our online forms are always encrypted and our network is protected and routinely monitored.

 

We use a secure server when you enter into any money transaction from our website. We also take appropriate measures to ensure that the information disclosed to us is kept secure, accurate and up to date and kept only for so long as is necessary for the purposes for which it is used.

Any payment details, such as bank account or credit/debit card information, on paper donation forms are destroyed once the donation has been processed and we are sure it has been received.

We undertake regular reviews of who has access to information that we hold to ensure that your information is only accessible by appropriately trained staff or volunteers and third party organisations contracted to provide specified data processing services to the Charity.

How long will we hold your personal information for?

We will keep your information for as long as required to enable us to operate our services but we will not keep your information for any longer than is necessary. We will take into consideration our legal obligations and tax and accounting rules when determining how long we should retain your information.

If you have pledged a legacy gift, it will be necessary to retain your data until the gift is received so that we can match the gift against your pledge.

When we no longer need to retain your information we will ensure it is securely disposed of, at the appropriate time.

Your choices

You have a choice about whether or not you wish to receive information from us. If you do not want to receive direct marketing communications from us about the vital work we do for the Hospitals and our events and activities then please let us know at any time by contacting our Fundraising Team on 02045268051 or [email protected].

We will not contact you for marketing purposes by email or text message unless you have told us you agree to us contacting you for this purpose by such channels.  If the telephone number we hold for you is registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) then we will not contact you on that phone number except for administrative purposes unless you have given us consent.

If you choose to send a donation or communication to us by text message we promise to make it clear to you in the promotional material which includes the number to text what you are consenting to and provide instructions for how you can opt out.

If you unsubscribe from communications from us from any or all of the communication channels mentioned above and in addition from post, then we will update our records to stop further communication as quickly as we can. Due to some communications already being in progress at the point you opt out please be aware that it can take up to 6 weeks for your preferences to be fully implemented.

We will only ever share your data if we have your explicit and informed consent and we have explained the rationale for doing so, although we may share information with staff within the Hospitals if you have given us a donation to benefit the area in which that member of staff works or has responsibility.

Keeping your information up-to-date

The accuracy of your information is important to us. You can update your information with us, including your address and contact details at any time. If you would like to change your preferences or update the details we hold about you, please contact our Fundraising Team on 0204 5268051 or [email protected].

Your rights in relation to the personal information we hold about you

You have the right to:

  • request access to, and a copy of, the information we hold about you (see contact details below);
  • update or amend the information we hold about you if it is wrong;
  • restrict how we process or use some or all of your personal information;
  • change your communication preferences at any time;
  • ask us to remove some or all of your personal information from our records unless we have a legal obligation to retain it;
  • object to the processing of your information for marketing purposes;
  • request that information held electronically be transferred to another third party either directly or through you.

You have the right to raise a concern or complaint about the way in which your information is being used (see Complaints section below).

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about any use of your information with the Information Commissioners Office, the UK data protection regulator.

Children and privacy

We take the protection of children very seriously. To that end, we require that children under 16 do not submit any information to our website without a parent’s or guardian’s consent. We will not knowingly request or collect from a child any information online that can be traced to the child, such as an email address, name, or information about the child’s family. Unless a parent or guardian consents to such use in advance, we will not knowingly use information that a child provides to us for any fundraising or promotional purpose.

Vulnerable circumstances policy

We recognise the importance of protecting our vulnerable supporters and follow the guidance issued by the Institute of Fundraising on treating donors fairly. We believe this helps to support our staff and fundraisers who come into contact with supporters in providing high quality customer care, ensuring anyone donating to the Charity is in a position to make a free and informed decision.

Access the Institute of Fundraising’s website for more guidance.

Complaints, compliments or comments

If you are unhappy with our work or something that we have done or failed to do, we want to know about it. We also welcome your views on what we do well. Your comments enable us as an organisation to learn and continuously improve our services.  If you would like to make a complaint, compliment or comment then please get in touch with our Fundraising Team. Contact details are at the top of this page.

You can find out more and read our Complaints Policy.

Changes to our Privacy Notice

We may change this Privacy Notice from time to time.  If we make any significant changes in the way we treat your personal information we will make this clear on this website and by contacting you directly.

If you wish to talk through anything in our Privacy Notice, find out more about your rights, or obtain a copy of the information we hold about you, please contact the Director of Resources. Contact details are at the top of the page.